Boston Blackie y la ley

If the story has a familiar ring, it's because it's based on a former film called ALIAS BOSTON BLACKIE in which Larry Parks is a convict on the lam after a magic show at prison.

This time the convict is a woman who disappears during Blackie's magic act (CONSTANCE DOWLING), but the plot is basically the same.

Unfortunately, the story gets off to a bad start with an attempt at humor that backfires as Blackie shows off his "magic" prowess to Inspector Farraday (RICHARD LANE) and his bumbling assistant. It goes on for fifteen minutes with meager results.

With Blackie impersonating Jani, a magician, the plot takes a turn when the real Jani is murdered. TRUDY MARSHALL plays the magician's wife effectively and is part of the final plot twist.

It's strictly formula stuff, but Blackie fans will probably recall that the story was done in a more clever way originally.

The first twenty minutes or so of this are quite entertaining. Who knew that "Blackie" (Chester Morris) was a dab hand at magic tricks? Well he takes his cabinet to a women's prison where he asks inmate "Dinah" (Constance Dowling) to have a go. Next thing, sirens are going off and there's no trace. "Insp. Farraday" (Richard Lane) and sidekick "Matthews" (Frank Sully) drag him in for questioning and we have some playful mischief around this magical device before, well it's soon not much use for anything but bonfire fodder. Meantime, there's a standard who robbed who and wants their share revenge drama bubbling away that sees the scheming "Irene" (Trudy Marshall) playing a shrewd game to secure the loot. It's quite quickly paced and there's some fun to be had - usually at the expense of the police and some singeing of $1,000 bills - before the ending that isn't quite what you might have been expecting. This is quite an amiable outing for "Blackie" with some comedy, spatting and sleight of hand to keep in interesting.

While Boston Blackie is performing a magic show at a women's prison, one of the convicts escapes. Naturally, Blackie is accused of helping with her escape. The Boston Blackie series was often repetitive but this one might take the cake as this is a reworking of Alias Boston Blackie, changing the gender of the escaped prisoner and the season to Thanksgiving instead of Christmas. More repetition as we get one of Blackie's trademark disguises, unconvincing as always. It really is amazing that the Boston Blackie series was as enjoyable as it was, given how many flaws it had. Just a testament to the charm and screen presence of Chester Morris, as well as his likable co-stars Richard Lane and George E. Stone. Lane in particular had his work cut out for him as the series did his Inspector Farraday no favors. If you take Farraday out of the often comical light the films cast him in, it's a rather unsettling character. A police detective who continually abuses his authority and powers to persecute a man who, according to the films, has paid his debt to society. One film even had Farraday chasing Blackie across the country where he clearly had no jurisdiction. In reality (even in the 1940s), he would have lost his badge long ago and Blackie would be able to sue the police for harassment.

Boston Blackie and the Law (1946)

** (out of 4)

Twelfth film in Columbia's Boston Blackie series is pretty much a remake of the third film Alias Boston Blackie. Blackie (Chester Morris) is putting on a magic show at a prison when a female inmate escapes. Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) thinks Blackie had a hand in the escape but there's a lot more going on. This is the least interesting of the seven or so films I've seen from the series. This same story was done in the third film, although in that movie it was a man who escaped. This film here is really dry on any laughs and the supporting players aren't up to the usual standard. Even Morris and Lane seem a tad bit uninterested here.

Keystone cops... or maybe three stooges. The cops just look silly trying to figure out how Blackie's magician's box works in the Inspector's office. After the disappearing act goes south in a prison, and one of the girls escapes, Blackie Chester Morris) and his box are hauled down to headquarters. As usual, Inspector Farraday and all the other coppers are goons, scratching their heads trying to figure out what's going on. Blackie must clear his name when "Dinah", the prisoner (Constance Dowling) somehow gets away. He and the "runt" run all over town and break a bunch of laws to try to find Dinah. It's pretty good... a much later episode in the Boston Blackie series. Morris would make a couple more after this one. I hope author Jack Boyle got compensated for all the films they made from his work! Directed by Ross Lederman... who, oddly enough, had actually started out as an extra with the keystone cops I mentioned at the beginning of this summary.